Images, such as satellite images, can be combined to produce one large panorama or mosaic of images. One problem encountered in combining images is that there may be misregistration between the images. The misregistration may be caused by a variety of factors. With respect to satellite images, for example, misregistration may be caused by errors in the digital elevation model used in the orthorectification process for elevation correction of points in the image. The misregistration may cause shear or feature misalignment along a seam between a pair of images.
One approach that has been used to correct for the misregistration is to correlate a pair of images along a line halfway between an overlap region of the images. The shift determined by the correlation is then applied half to one image and half to the second image. This approach assumes that the image overlaps are horizontal or vertical rectangles and that the seam is placed in the middle of the overlap region. However, the overlap regions are often not horizontal or vertical rectangles and the seams are often not positioned down the middle of the overlap region. Additionally, if the misregistration between the images is not consistent, this approach only correct for a small amount of misregistration and will not work properly for large misregistration between the images.